It is unfortunate to note that
things have not changed much in Plateau State since the first
crisis in 2001 despite the appeals by many Nigerians. Rather,
each side seems to be digging in. On the one hand, peace became
an opportunity to prepare for the next round of violence while,
on the other, the crisis themselves granted each group the
chance to revenge previous atrocities, defend itself against
fresh ones, or commit new assault that would serve as the fuel
which will sustain the flames of the next crisis.
It is natural for people to differ,
clash, fight and even go to war. Conflict is an inevitable part of
human society and an affirmation of its history. Without it the
weak will not get justice, people will not understand one another
better and society will not attain progress and lasting peace. The
United Nations with its structures, charters, successes and
failures is a product of conflict, for example. Even here at
home, people in many communities have evolved from conflicts with
a better understanding of one another and are therefore more
yielding to cooperation for a lasting peace than in their
pre-conflict times. Kano and Kaduna are the best examples to cite.
Muslims and Christians in the two states that have witnessed
bloody episodes during the last decade are today standing side by
side in the fight against ethnic and religious bigotry. They have
come out of the conflicts stronger in mind, better united as a
people and more prosperous economically.
My concern in this piece and
definitely the concern of every patriotic Nigerian today is why
Plateau State has failed to pull itself out of the vicious circle of
violence and narrate to the nation, as other states did, the success
story of a new dawn characterized by peace, tolerance and
prosperity. I was amazed at the level of prosperity displayed in
Kaduna Market when I visited it three weeks ago. That would not have
been possible without peace. That is not so in Jos, the capital of
Plateau State. Its ultramodern market the first of its kind in
West Africa is lying in ruins since it was pulled down by the
forces of envy over eight years ago.
The recent conflict has given the
world the reasons why bloody crisis on the Plateau is running
unabated. It has unmasked the faces of the actual people behind it.
From the various comments on the crisis, it is clear that the nation
is becoming impatient with these elements. With this, I strongly
think, we are likely to break the ice; we have likely witnessed the
last scene. There is a consensus that the culprits be identified and
punished accordingly. This is the commitment given by the Acting
President, Goodluck Jonathan, the call of America and United
Nations, the plea of community leaders and the wish of all
Nigerians. Allowing the culprits in the past conflicts to go
Scot-free has been the main reason for their recurrence according to
virtually all commentators.
It is surprising to see how the horror
of the crime committed has made people to abandon their former
positions. They are now confessing that there is a different agenda
other than what is on their tables. The Chairman of the Christian
Association of Nigeria in Plateau State, Archbishop Kaigama, has
consistently stood his ground this time around, maintaining that the
conflict is not religious, meaning it is not motivated by religion.
That strongly suggests that ethnicity is the principal drive. His
counterpart in Kano, Bishop Ramson Bello was more specific in his
indictment. When asked why, unlike in Kano and Kaduna States, the
crises in Jos have continued unabated, he said: "The crises in Kano
and Kaduna were abated because their governments were interested in
stopping them
" (Translated from the report in Hausa). So while the
first cleric was implicating ethnicity as the motivator crisis, the
second is blaming the role of the Plateau State government for
sustaining it.
The analysis of both clerics has been
confirmed by the nature and scale of the atrocities committed. It is
now acknowledged by many human rights groups in and outside Nigeria
that the crimes committed at some scenes in the conflict are
genocidal. The first one that shocked the world was that of Kuru
Karama but there were many others at Forom, Gero, Sabongidan Kanar,
etc. In all these scenes, Muslims regardless of their age, gender
or condition of health were massacred by people of the predominant
Berom ethnic group in what is clearly seen as a systematic campaign
to exterminate the former from the area. Human rights groups and
reporters from international media organizations have confirmed
this, just as did the endless narrations of victims and other
evidences in their possessions. The nature of the crime is beyond
what any religion could tolerate, hence the dissociation of
Christianity from it by many of its clerics. The scenes of
slaughtered babies, children, women and old men as old as 96 years
as well as armless youths abound in every location. This is
primitivism at its peak, not religion, certainly. We will come back
to the crime in a short while. Meanwhile let us dwell on its
category, genocide, in an effort to establish our final argument
about the culpability of the Governor.
The desire to live in an environment
cleansed of other groups has haunted man whenever he is confronted
with social and economic problems which he is unable to solve. It is
habitual to lay the blame on the other group and dream that once it
is removed the problem will be over. When the other group is
targeted and measures are taken to destroy it in whole or in part,
then the ingredients of genocide are complete. So preponderant is
this error in human history that the United Nations made a provision
against it among its conventions, declaring it as "a crime under
international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United
Nations and condemned by the civilized world."
Article 2 of the Convention on
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) defines
genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a
national,
ethnical,
racial
or
religious
group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily
or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on
the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to
prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring
children of the group to another group." (Quotations from Wikipedia)
We have had our fair share of ethnic
and religious conflicts in this country but I do not think any of
them qualifies to be called genocide other than certain actions that
were taken during the civil war, principally when the Igbo were
subjected to starvation as calculated policy by the Yakubu Gowon led
Federal Government following the advice of late Chief Obafemi
Awolowo. The other conflicts in various parts of the country in
which people of some ethnic groups were targeted were spontaneous
with no participation of government. The only one which took the
path of genocide before it was stopped was the killings of
northerners and Igbo in the Southwest by Afenifere backed Oodua
Peoples' Congress. But to be fair, it is very doubtful if those
killings were a policy of the Obasanjo administration or that of any
of the governments in the Southwest. As a result they were stopped
of course after many lives have been lost, unfortunately because
government worked hard to stop them.
In Plateau State the situation has
been different during the past eight years. We are all aware of the
historical, religious, social and political factors that have been
setting the two groups apart for several decades now. It only
required hiring a girl by a group of armed men to insist on passing
through a Friday congregation of Muslims to provoke the first crisis
in 2001. From then, the state government has consistently sided with
one group the natives or so-called "indigenes" at the expense of
Muslim ethnic groups which it officially designate as "settlers". It
has also been the official policy of government to deny the latter
group the right to win any executive position, while making
concession on legislative seats. The chairmanship of Jos-North local
government became so contentious that for years its elections could
not hold. And when it did hold in 2008, their rigging was used as a
pretext to ignite another crisis.
Also, the State government has always
blocked any effort to bring perpetrators of the conflict to order.
At a point, due to the complicity of the State government under its
former Governor, Joshua Dariye, the Obasanjo administration had to
declare a state of emergency in the state. That measure stopped the
circle of killings but it did not break it. The new governor, David
Jonah Jang, who is well known for his ethnocentric views, confirmed
the fears of escalation. He came with the resolve of "dealing with
the Hausas." After the 2008 conflict, he stubbornly resisted the
involvement of the Federal Government in conducting any
investigation into the crisis. Why would he be so recalcitrant State
official?
There could be only one answer in this
world: he has something to hide. The utterances of his officials
clearly portray his siding with the perpetrators who are from his
ethnic and religious group. Otherwise, if the other group were the
culprits, Jang or anyone else in his position will gladly welcome
the Federal Government's Panel before which he will submit endless
evidences against them. Blocking justice is among the standard
responses of perpetrators of genocides. It was the language of
Milosevic, of Rwandan Hutu leaders, and now of the Sudanese leader,
al-Bashir, to mention just a few.
More than siding with the
perpetrators, the crime of genocide that was committed in the last
crisis shows clearly that the governor is indeed an accomplice if
not the brain behind it. Genocide, by its very nature, is an
organized crime that will succeed only with government involvement.
One can say virtually all genocides in history are sponsored by
governments. The same thing is taking place in Plateau. In virtually
every village that Berom youths went to massacre Muslim
Hausa-Fulani, they said they were sent by the Governor. This has
been confirmed by the testimonies of victims from different places.
That was also the answer given to the Pastor at Kuru Karama who
tried to stop the youths from exterminating the Muslim population of
the village. He was beaten by the youth, tied to a tree and told,
"We are sent by the Governor".
And what the youths are saying makes a
lot of sense. The resources required to execute genocide can only
come from a government. Who will pay for the logistics, the weapons
and the youths required to execute the crime? Who has the power to
subdue any opposition especially from community and religious
leaders? Who will ensure the propaganda of hate speech that will
ensure the demonization of the target group and instigate offensive?
Who will give the culprits the assurance that they will go free? Who
is big enough to cover them? In fact, who will contemplate the risk
of genocide other than those in authority? Only government can do
these.
However, Governor Jang and his kinsmen
are mistaken to think that they can get away with this in the 21st
Century. I believe that if the Biafran war had taken place these
days, Nigerian leaders will not contemplate starvation as a weapon
in war because they know that the International Community will not
allow them go free. Today, there is greater support among nations
for the International Criminal Court. When General Krstic was
conducting the genocide of Muslim Bosnians at Srebrenica in 1995,
neither him nor his master, Milosevic, thought that the long arm of
justice will one day reach them. They were counting on the support
or complacency of the West since the crime they were committing was
against Muslims. However, the very West stood its ground that they
be brought to justice and, behold, Serbia finally handed over its
war time leader, Milosevic, to the ICC. The brutal Radovan Karadzic
ran, but he could not run forever. He too was apprehended.
Mohammad al-Bashir thought the ruling
of the Court was a ruse. He held a rally boasting that it is not
tenable. But since then, not only is al-Bashir restricted to his
Sudan, unable even to visit Arab and Muslim countries, he has
substantially backed away from inflicting his barbaric acts on our
African brothers in Darfur. I have no doubt that a new Sudanese
President will handover al-Bashir as Serbia handed over Milosevic.
Governor Jang and other perpetrators
of war crimes on the Plateau can now enjoy the comfort of their
offices and reassurance of their kinsmen. However, the long arm of
justice will eventually reach them. They are nowhere close in
station of arrogance and viciousness to the names we mentioned
before. Let the ongoing collection of evidences be completed and
submitted before the ICC. Once the petitions appear credible, the
Court will set in motion the machinery that will ultimately bring
them to justice. It is then they will realize that there is no rock
on the Plateau that can hide them, just as Serbia became too small
to hide Karadzic. Nigeria, moreover, is not a country that will
resist any international pressure to handover Jang. Charles Taylor,
despite the promises, was eventually apprehended even though he
tried to run away to the Cameroons, and handed over to the Court.
There he is, facing justice. Poor Taylor!
I think we Nigerians must realize that
we are not only citizens of Nigeria, subdued by its oppressive and
corrupt judicial and political system, but also citizens of the
world. Our country is a signatory to the UN charters that guarantee
us the right to seek justice beyond our borders. We must be ready to
employ those avenues in order to check the injustice meted on us at
home. If Governor Jang and his gang are committed to atrocities and
"uncivilized" behaviour, other Nigerians must prove that they are
committed to justice and civilization. We must rise to seek justice
for all the victims of this genocide. They do not have a voice.
Their relatives who survived may be too weak to walk the tenuous
path of justice. We are the voice of the former and the strength of
the latter.
I strongly believe that the Plateau
State Governor, David Jonah Jang, is ripe for the ICC. I do not
believe in the promise of punishing the culprits made of the Federal
Government because it has never kept any. Moreover, with an absentee
president and a vice president whose acting position is a subject of
legal debate, I cannot see the courage to apprehend any wayward
governor. In fact, this might have informed the timing of the
genocide. Also, no traditional ruler should plead with the victims
to forsake their right to seek redress at the ICC in exchange for
empty peace talks with the Plateau State government. Condescending
from justice will only allow a recurrence. I know that raising the
possibility of his prosecution before the ICC from various quarters
in and outside Nigeria is sufficient to dampen the future atrocious
plans of the governor. But this hindsight must not extinguish the
right of the dead to justice. Nigeria must toe this line in order to
nip in the bud the genocidal thirst of other Jangs who think
genocide is an answer to their inability to provide good governance
to their people.
I wrote this article with a heavy
heart. As a Christian from Biu in Southern Borno State I belong to a
family that is mixed with both Muslims and Christians. Among my
immediate ancestors were two Muslims who went to Plateau for mining
activities during the colonial times. They have stayed there with
their families and their descendants have maintained contacts with
their roots over the years. I have lost eight of them in the present
conflict at Kuru Jenta. It is a pain I cannot swallow without crying
out. The truth, I believe, should be told and Nigerians should be
united in protecting the rights of individual citizens regardless of
their religious or ethnic identities. May the Almighty Lord, our
Saviour, make this crisis to be the last of its kind and may he make
peace reign in our hearts and our society. Amen.
All correspondences to
pindarmishelia@yahoo.com
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